Ticketmaster Facing Lawsuits Over Allegations of Colluding With Scalpers

Ticketmaster is facing potential class-action lawsuits over accusations that they’re colluding with scalpers. The Star reports that reporters went undercover as ticket scalpers and learned that the company recruits scalpers to resell its tickets through its “professional reseller program.”

The site notes that Canadian class action firm Merchant Law Group LLP and United States law firm Hagens Berman are at work on possible lawsuits due to the allegations, noting that Ticketmaster gets a second cut on tickets that they sell. Ticketmaster has denied the allegations, stating, “It is categorically untrue that Ticketmaster has any program in place to enable resellers to acquire large volumes of tickets at the expense of consumers. Ticketmaster’s Seller Code of Conduct specifically prohibits resellers from purchasing tickets that exceed the posted ticket limit for an event. In addition, our policy also prohibits the creation of fictitious user accounts for the purpose of circumventing ticket limit detection in order to amass tickets intended for resale.”

Tony Merchant told The Star, “It’s a result of the Star/CBC investigation that got us looking at whether we can advance a claim successfully for breach of competition and consumer affairs legislation. We knew about the issues of scalpers. But we did not know there was evidence available of them working conjunctively with scalpers. Getting those things on camera are things a court will listen to … You’ve sent us back to the drawing board.”